By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MAY 20, 2025 | Compared to the rest of Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County has experienced good, solid government during the last 50 years. The county leadership has been superb, except for the shortened Bannister years. The school board has been extraordinary, governing one of the exemplary school systems in the nation. Gwinnett city governments for the most part have been run well.
But today, questions are being raised, particularly about the school board, and to a lesser extent, about the county commission.
Look at the current state of school governance. The female majority on the school board, with questionable credentials, has fired Georgia’s best school superintendent, Alvin Wilbanks, before his term was up, and paid him a high dollar figure to get him out the door.
Then they came back and hired another superintendent, then virtually gave him little chance, and again, let him go before his contract was over, paying again a high tax dollar buy-out for him to leave. The board is now in an unnecessary “national search” for his replacement. Few “national” candidates may want to face the task of trying to work with this majority female school board. Meanwhile, Dr. Al Taylor is holding the position as a temporary superintendent.
If that wasn’t bad enough, now the board, in a 4-1 vote, has voted to raise taxes for its coming budget year, a whopping $220 million increase. The previous budget was just under $3.2 billion; next year the budget will be $3.4 billion. Are you listening to that unheard-of increase? Some taxpayers might be upset over this.
Such wild moves by this school board haven’t been the norm in the past 50 years. The changes are past shocking; they are unpardonable; they are outrageous. Voters are noticing.
Now look at the county commission and one element that has come out in the past few months. The commission feels creating the city of Mulberry was formed in a way that punishes the majority of taxpayers in the county. The county maintains that the bill is “unconstitutional, unprecedented and unworkable mandates that will impose an administrative compliance burden as well as a financial burden on all Gwinnett taxpayers, including those who live in the city of Mulberry.”
While the bill may be unprecedented, the simple aspect of the matter is that the bill was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, after passing the General Assembly. While county officials may not like that it became law, the residents of the county within the proposed corporate limits of Mulberry, voted to become a new city.
It seems somewhat too late for county officials to continue to oppose what is now law in Georgia. It appears that the county did not have the influence at the legislature for the Mulberry bill to be drawn the way the county wanted. While the county can still bring legal action on the subject, it will have to be against the state, and now against the City of Mulberry.
Meanwhile, Mulberry officials must now seek to work with the county in determining how to pay for comprehensive service provided by the county to Mulberry.
Back in 2011, some 14 years ago, the county and the new City of Peachtree Corners worked out details similar to what should be on the table now for the county and the city of Mulberry. While the circumstances may be different than before, the two sides need to come together soon and not let this fester, and agree on terms for the good of all.
That’s the way good government has worked in the recent past. It should continue in similar fashion today.
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